Classical

Alliluia - Eastern European vocal music

Freiburg Oratorio Choir, Karla Massouh, Simon Fallert, Conductor: Bernhard Gärtner

Sunday, 08/10/2023 / 07:00 PM / Church of the Sacred Heart in Stühlinger

A l l i l u i a
Eastern European vocal music
with works by
Mi?kinis, Kreek, Gárdonyi, Rachmaninov, Dvo?ák

Karla Massouh, soprano
Simon Fallert, organ
Freiburger Oratorienchor
Bernhard Gärtner, conductor

The Freiburger Oratorienchor offers under the title ,, A l l i l u i a" a choir concert with music from the eastern edge of Europe, and here especially from Estonia, Latvia, Hungary and Russia. These countries impress today with a particularly rich choral life and contributed decisively to the diversity of European music in the 19th and 20th centuries. This diversity arose from a position of increased self-confidence combined with the strengthening of national roots. The different regional timbres, which influence each other, result today in a rich European choral music with many regional nuances.

Composers such as Antonin Dvo?ák in the Czech Republic, Urbán György in Hungary or Cyrillus Kreek in Estonia drew or draw a substantial part of their inspiration from their own folklore or that of their neighboring countries. Kreek finds an unmistakable handwriting through melody lines that do not literally quote folk songs, but which create new European timbres in the regional "folk tone". The result is works with new impulses and colors that emphatically enrich musical Europe. The choir sings three compositions by Sergei Rachmaninov from his famous "Vigil" op. 73, which give an insight into Russian Orthodox church music, whose peculiar combination of key and melody constitutes its unmistakable charm.

The program is completed by the solo singing of the young soprano Karla Massouh and the organ playing of the equally young organist Simon Fallert.